


The Most Beautiful Ending

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M, Fluff, Sequel, The Most Beautiful Mistake'verse, fluffy fluff, wedding fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 10:59:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14103891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: A little fluffy epilogue toThe Most Beautiful Mistake. A few years after Gideon arrives, Belle and Gold are finally getting married.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “Friends to lovers”





	The Most Beautiful Ending

If Gold was capable of pacing without aggravating his ankle, then he would have been pacing. As it was, that task fell to Neal, who was feeling as if he had burned off about three thousand calories in the last half an hour whilst listening to his father’s nerves. Finally, he stood still and faced Gold, massaging his temples with a groan.

“Dad, I swear that everything is going to be fine. I promise. If you get cold feet now, I am going to handcuff us together and bodily drag you to the registry if I have to.”

“But what if?”

“No! No what ifs! No buts or ifs or anything remotely resembling negativity!”

“But what if she realises she’s making a terrible mistake?”

Neal pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath.

“Dad, you and Belle have been in a relationship for four years and you’ve been in love with each other since forever. You live together. You have a child together. How is getting married a terrible mistake?”

“I don’t know! I just…”

“No! Don’t just anything! You and Belle are getting married and that’s that. Nothing is going to go wrong, nothing is going to get in the way. Belle is not going to leave you in the lurch and run off to Guam!”

Gold sighed, slumping back on the uncomfortable sofa in the back room of Granny’s bed and breakfast. He’d decided to get ready for the wedding there with Neal, to let Belle, Ruby and Ariel have the full run of the flat above the yarn shop to get ready in, but he was beginning to think that the separation was a bad idea. If he’d got ready in the same place as Belle, then they could reassure each other right up until the moment that they got married. As it was, he had started to worry again, and now Neal was despairing of him.

He didn’t even know why he was worried. When he had tentatively asked Belle, six months ago now, if she would like to get married some day, he’d been met with nothing but wondrous enthusiasm for the idea. It was Belle who had done most of the planning and made most of the decisions about the wedding. Why Gold thought that she would want to back out at this late stage after all that, he didn’t know, but it was only comparatively recently that Belle had brought optimism back into his life.

Neal flopped down onto the sofa beside him, giving him a sideways glance.

“Why are you so worried?” he asked. “You haven’t had an attack of crippling self-doubt for ages. What’s brought on this sudden idea that Belle’s going to do a u-turn on your relationship just because you’re going to say some words and sign a bit of paper? That’s all getting married is, Dad. All the trappings that go around it are just decoration.”

“I don’t know,” Gold replied truthfully. “I honestly have no idea. I’m just scared.”

Neal shook his head with a chuckle. “What am I going to do with you?” he asked. “What am I going to do with both of you, for that matter? Sometimes I reckon that the two of you would never have got your act together if it wasn’t for me and Ruby. If we hadn’t performed an intervention we’d never be in this position.”

“That’s very true.” Gold didn’t like to remember the weeks of misunderstanding that had separated him and Belle after that fateful night that had brought them together and finally crossed the bridge from friends to lovers. If it hadn’t been for Neal and Ruby forcing them to talk to each other then they would never have cleared it all up and wouldn’t be as wonderfully happy as they were.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” Emma poked her head around the door. She’d been a tower of strength over the last few hours, managing to take the pressure off Neal when he felt like his father’s nerves and obtuseness were going to give him a heart attack. “It’s time to go, so however you’re going to drag him to the registry, we need to do it now. I vote for knocking him out and putting him in shopping cart.”

Neal snorted, and Gold had to laugh too, getting to his feet and brushing off his suit. It felt odd on him; he was far more comfortable in sweaters. The wedding was to be a small and casual affair. Gold would have been happy for it just to have been him, Belle, Gideon, Neal and Emma, but they had friends who had been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and Belle had thought that it would be unfair not to invite them.

It wasn’t far from the bed and breakfast to the town hall registry, where Archie Hopper would soon be marrying them, but that didn’t stop Gold from worrying all the way there. When he arrived at the registry, however, all his fears immediately flew out of the window. Belle was standing there on the steps waiting for him with Ariel and Ruby, and Gideon beaming proudly, and she was looking absolutely stunning. She had opted for a shorter dress with a flared skirt in ivory and gold, saying that something big and puffy would have drowned her small frame and that she’d never particularly been a fan of white wedding dresses in the first place. This gown was so much more _her_ , and it suited the small celebration that they were having. They were by nature quiet and sedate people, and this was a quiet wedding. So much pomp and grandeur and expense were not in either of their natures, and it would have been uncomfortable to do it today just for the sake of keeping up appearances. After all the misunderstandings that had taken place when Belle had got pregnant had taught them really not to worry about what other people thought of them; as long as they were happy and their friends and family were happy, then that was all that mattered.

Emma and Neal made their way inside to take their seats for the ceremony, and Belle slipped her arm through Gold’s, clutching her posy of cream roses tightly.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and although her smile could have rivalled the sun for brightness, Gold could see the tell-tale hint of fear in her eyes. It was the same one that he was wearing himself. They had probably both been worrying that the other one would get cold feet and not show up at the last moment, and it had all been completely unfounded. He couldn’t stop a huff of laughter from escaping, and Belle quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yes. I was just thinking that after four years, we should have stopped expecting the worst.”

Belle just laughed and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Shall we just get married so that we can stop worrying?”

Gold nodded. “I think that’s an excellent idea.”

X

The diner was closed for the occasion, and Granny had decorated the place beautifully with ribbons and roses, pushing all the tables together to create one long table with room for all of their small party around it. It felt homely, and cosy, and less like a wedding, Gold thought. There was less pressure, less expectation for everything to be perfect, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. If there had been anything fancier involved then he would probably have expired from panic by now.

As it was, he could just focus on Belle, and the fact that they were married. There was nothing more to worry about now. They were husband and wife, and he hadn’t lost the rings or forgotten his vows or done any of the other myriad things that had plagued him along with the visions of Belle not turning up. No matter what happened now, nothing could go wrong.

Gideon was sitting on Belle’s other side and he scrambled up into her lap as Granny brought out the wedding cake, decorated in ivory and gold just like Belle’s dress was. He looked incredibly disappointed when he saw it.

“There’s no candles,” he said forlornly. “You can’t have a cake with no candles.”

On Gold’s other side, Neal laughed. “It’s not a birthday cake, Gid. It’s a wedding cake. You don’t have candles on a wedding cake.”

“I think you should have one,” Gideon protested. “One wedding, one candle.”

“You know, he does have a point,” Emma said. “I think you should have a candle.”

Granny rolled her eyes and vanished behind the diner counter, coming back with a single gold birthday candle that she stuck into the centre of the cake.

“That’s better!” Gideon said excitedly.

“Ok, you’ve got your candle, Gid,” Belle said. “Do you want to blow it out now?”

“No!” Gideon exclaimed. “I can’t blow it out! It’s your and Papa’s cake! You have to blow it out!”

Belle glanced over at Gold, who shrugged, and together they leaned in to blow out the candle, to the cheers of the other guests gathered around the table.

Before they could cut the cake, Neal stood up and cleared his throat, getting everyone’s attention.

“I know that this is an informal affair,” he began, “and not exactly traditional, and I know that Dad would likely have fainted dead away under the table if we’d expected him to make a speech at any point today. I had enough trouble with his vows. But I’d like this opportunity to say a few words about Dad and Belle.

“They’ve been friends forever. Well, not forever, but it feels like that sometimes. They’ve probably been in love for just about as long, but it was only comparatively recently that they actually got their act together and admitted their feelings. I’m pretty sure that they’ve driven all of us here round the bend with all the indecision and the miscommunications that have gone on.

“But to see this relationship built on that deep friendship, and to see them go from friends to lovers to having a son and now getting married has been wonderful to see, and I can only hope that they continue to have a happy life together, and that they remain best friends for the rest of time.”

Neal raised his glass. “To the happy couple!”

As the guests echoed his toast, and as he turned to capture Belle’s lips, Gold knew that their life together would definitely be a happy one.


End file.
